This is War
by Kegami96
Summary: Prospit and Derse have been at peace for years, and when it's broken, there will always be people who disagree. This is the tale of the ones who refuse to pick a side, and what happened to them because of it, This is the tale of the ones that brought opposites together. Rosemary/Johnjade/Davekat among others. -Trigger warnings posted before each chapter.- Hiatus.
1. Chapter 1

Act One: Prospit's Side

A1S1: Back-and-Forth

Featuring: Vriska Serket, John Egbert, David Andrew, Jade Harley, _Roxy Seers, Ellen Jade_ ( _Italicized characters are minor characters in the chapter)_

 **Hey guys! Welcome to This is War, in which Derse and Prospit are countries, John and Dave are princes, every betakid has a sprite, and I may be a little biased toward my Davesprite chapters.**

 **He deserves love okay.**

 **Anyways, here. Prospit. Have fun with this awesome AU I came up with.**

 **DISCLAIMER: Hussie owns Homestuck. Bless you Hussie, you created my life.**

Back-and-Forth

Dave walked into Castle Pristia and was promptly ambushed by a small murder of crows. The black birds flew out the open door after attacking his clothes.

David Andrew laughed to himself and kept walking. How the prankster had managed to get the crows to do that, he wasn't sure, but happenings like that were quite common in the Castle.

Castle Pristia was the home of Prospit's royal family as well as the vast majority of its staff. Said staff included David, his best friend Jaden, and his good friends Vriska and John. Except John wasn't part of the castle staff, not by a long shot. John Egbert was next in line for the throne of Prospit, a duty which he tried to take seriously and often failed at doing so. He tried, though, so David didn't mind. Plus it meant pranks galore, and that was one of the reasons he even still hung around this place.

Speaking of which.

"Daaaaave! You're back!" Vriska shouted, pushing through the thin crowd of Prospitian and trollish servants. "You made it back alive!"

"Of course I did," Dave answered back, "They couldn't kill me if they tried." He pushed his shades up on top of his head and smiled. "What is new here?"

Vriska was the resident castle messenger - she was called on to send messages from the King to his servants, vice versa, from servants to other servants, and every other type of relay someone in the castle needed. She was really good at multitasking and about as good at that as she was at pranking and snarking people. Passive-aggressive snarking, which was even better. She had bright, yellow-blonde hair with two electric blue streaks (showing her blood type), thin wire-rimmed glasses that covered her left eye, and a black jacket that she wore practically everywhere. Under it she wore either bright cerulean or dark navy shirts and black or gray jeans, which really didn't go with the electric blue two-inch heels she ran around in. Despite her apparent insanity, though, Vriska was a pretty nice and peppy girl.

David had a similar job, except his messenging reached not across a castle but across kingdoms - he wasn't native to either Derse or Prospit, and both countries had made a peace treaty over him so he could pass between kingdoms without being accused of treason. Not that it was necessary, because both kingdoms had been at peace for a long while. He was easily mistaken for a Prospitian while in the Purple Kingdom, though, simply because of his dark orange-blond hair and generally orange-ness. He had pale skin, an orange shirt he almost always wore, blue jeans, orange sneakers, and a white-and-yellow jacket that was currently tied around his waist. His eyes were sometimes covered by semi-transparent sunglasses, but his bright, nearly-glowing blue eyes were just as exposed to the world.

As a response to his question, Vriska giggled, making the servant nearest her jump and jostle her basket of laundry. "Oh, not much. John's playing as many pranks as always, Jade's still making visits and Jaden's still waiting for you to get back. The usual."

"Nice to know no one else went clinically insane while I play solo relay tag," David laughed, fixing his shades on his head. Vriska wrapped her arms around his right one, grinning.

Normally, physical contact anywhere from arm-grabbing to poking was frowned upon in trollciety, but Vriska was the type of person who didn't give a frick about rules. She grabbed every guy's arm and put her arm around every girl's shoulder because she was just that adorably insane. David knew he and the others should be scared of her insanity, but honestly no one really noticed after a while. Besides, she was easy to open up to, and got along with pretty much everyone.

"By the way, John asked me to ask you if you liked his prank."

David looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, actually. Sending a murder of birds straight at my face was quite effectively startling, as well as a good pun."

The blonde frowned and mirrored his eyebrow placement. "Pun, eh?"

"Murder of crows. Inside joke."

"Ah, I see." Vriska let go of the orange-haired boy's arm and grinned, showing pointy troll teeth. "Inside jokes. I'll just leave you to that, then. Don't tell me. I'll just bide my time until dear John explains."

The taller boy shrugged as the pair reached the fork in the hall that lead in four directions. He'd entered through the west entrance, and the area the King and Prince usually were in was to his left. Vriska finger-waved at him as she skipped down the South Hall, a gesture which David replied to with a raised hand and a flick of his shades. The world looked a couple shades darker, but his eyes hurt from staring at the bright world. Everything in Pristia was either made of white marble, white stone, gold, or painted gold, with black, silver and gray accents. At least, Town Street and the Castle were - he knew other places had normal-colored stuff, but the King liked keeping the Castle and the main street like they had in the older days.

David didn't bother looking at the plaques next to the gray doors as he walked down the hall. While his brain was lost in thought, his body went on autopilot down to the tenth door on the right side of the hall and knocked on the door twice. Pulling himself out of his thoughts, the blue-eyed boy said loudly, "Hey, John. Royal messenger here."

A muffled, "One sec!" was heard through the thick gray wood before the door unlocked and opened. Behind it was the one and only John Egbert, and sitting at a desk at the back of the room, Jade Harley.

John Egbert (better known as Prince John) was the heir to the Prospitian Throne. His dad the previous king had died when John was young, and his uncle was holding the throne for now until the boy turned eighteen. He didn't look much like a Prince besides the tiny gold crown in his extremely messy black hair, and the small line of gold stones that ran along the sides of his rectangular glasses. He had bright blue eyes - not the nearly-glowy electric blue like David's, but a nearly generic sky-blue color - and very slight buck teeth, which he was trying to get rid of. Today he wore a dark blue tee with two lighter blue stripes crossing the top part, blue jeans, and black sneakers with yellow-gold laces. Despite being the prince of a kingdom that highly respected the olden ways, he sure dressed in the times. John liked studying to be King, but he liked spending time with his friends even more. He was also a bit of a nerd.

Even more of a nerd, however, was Jade Harley, the Prospitian Witch. Well, she really wasn't, that was her tutor, Roxy Seers, but Roxy ended up more drunk than working. Jade was seventeen and a half, the oldest of the three, and had chocolate brown hair that was more straight then curly and reached nearly to her waist. She refused to cut it because John and Roxy said it looked good on her, and it helped her look more witchey. She had thick black circle glasses and big green eyes, which, paired with her buck teeth and shortness, made her look adorable. It also helped that she wore mostly skirts, like today, where her outfit was a black shirt, light gray skirt that reached her knees, and darker gray leggings. She had her beloved green jacket on though, and she was grinning at David in a way that suggested pure innocence and cuteness. Despite her cuteness she was actually very smart, probably smarter than John, if not more forgetful and prone to falling asleep at random times.

David stepped into the room and looked at the contents of the desk Jade was sitting at (and John too, if the empty seat next to her was anything to go by). There were two jars full of questionable green stuff, one labeled 'Ap.A 29 Par' and the other 'Ap.A 45 Par,' with a bit of each jar poured into two test tubes that lay on their sides, sealed (AA29 and AA45). There was also a small pile of notes and other assorted witchey equipment.

"What is going on here?" He asked, running his hand along the papers and tubes. David's fingers were really thin and really sensitive, and he ran them over a lot of stuff. Most people thought it was just a weird quirk. "Witchey froggy stuff?"

"Witchey froggy stuff indeed, Dave," Jade laughed, leaning into the back of her chair as she giggled. "I'm seeing if John's studies gave him insight to mine and Roxy's frog breeding. She's been too... absent to work on anything with me lately."

David knew what that meant. Roxy had had a drinking problem even before Jade showed up to be her apprentice, and it just got worse every time the older girl failed an experiment or messed up. Either the Majyycian had been out of her senses today, or she was off around town doing whatever she does when she's trying not to get too drunk.

The Prince coughed, directing both teens' attention to him. "Dave, I think you have a message for me?"

"Oh. Yeah," the blonde said, ducking his head and staring at his feet. "Right." He looked back up, putting his hands in his pockets. "The royal family of Derse wants to thank you for your previous message, and the Prince would like you to have this." He handed the black-haired Prince an envelope that he'd procured from somewhere in his jacket. "Your reply is not required."

"Thanks, Dave," John said, a hint of laughter in his voice.

Jade put her hands on the edge of the desk and leaned her chair back so she could see David's face. "You can leave now."

"Huh?" The blue-eyed male looked down at her.

"Jaden. I know you want to see her, you've been antsy since you got here." The black-haired girl said sincerely, before glancing at John. "If the Prince says it's okay, that is."

John looked at David's sunglasses, but didn't bother trying to look through them. He knew that was impossible. "Go ahead, Dave. I won't keep you."

The messenger bowed his head in respect and thanks before running out of the room, shutting the door behind him. John sat back down next to Jade, saying, "Where were we?"

"At the part where I tell you what kind of frogs these were," Jade said, smiling. She looked at her fingers, where various colored bands sat. They were just tight enough to never fall off, but they never turned her fingers blue either. John didn't know where she got them. "Let's see, Number 29 was from the Wilderlands, in the deep south. Roxy went out and hunted it down last week even though we Paradoxified it a while ago. And Number 45 is a rare breed from the outskirts of Derse near the ocean, which was killed by a fisherman a day after we made its slime. We didn't have to go kill it ourselves, though, so that's nice."

"Why a rare breed? Doesn't that mean, you know, it's endangered and you want to keep it safe? From extinction or something?" John asked, tapping the bottles of slime with his fingers.

"I can just make it again with the paradox slime," Jade explained, fixing her shirt as she spoke. "Anyways, endangered species of frogs aside, I need you insight. You do have a better general education than me."

"Heck yes I do," John laughed, smiling. "I'm the prince of a whole country."

The two teens stayed up working on frog breeding and slime experiments until the late hours of the night, at which point Jade had to return home.

Outside the Castle, across the Wilderlands, and inside another kingdom, sat an agent, making plans to rip the kingdoms' peace apart.

 **Wow, over two thousand words! Woot woot!**

 **By the way, David is NOT Dave (Strider). David is Davesprite, but human. I wanted to put the sprites in here, but that extended to putting in 'sprite versions' of all four Beta kids. David Andrew is Davesprite, the one referred to as Jaden here is Jadesprite, the one later referred to as Rosie is a Rosesprite, and the one later referred to as J is what Johnsprite would be. And... stuff. Yeah.**

 **I ship Davesprite/Jadesprite, okay? It's underloved and I think it needs some stuff to its name. I also ship Dave/Karkat, John/Jade (who aren't related in any way here), and Rose/Kanaya in this. I even used their ship names (About Bloody Time is for Davekat, Do the Spacey Thing is for JohnJade, Rainbow Drinker is RoseMary, and Sprites of a Tail Feather is Davesprite/Jadesprite {I made that one up myself, I'm pretty freaking proud of it}) and will continue to use them in A/Ns. :)**

 **Also, reviews are appreciated! Tell me stuff you're confused on, things I could elaborate on, and cool plot points or ships you would like to see in this story. All the Beta kids and trolls are in here, the Alpha kids, and possibly some of the older trolls. But don't count on it too much. It helps the story get better when you review!**

 **See you all later.**

 **-An Overly Happy Kara**


	2. Chapter 2

Act One: Derse's Side

A1S1: Back-and-Forth

Featuring: Dave Strider, Rose Lalonde, Hylif, _Lexie Rose, David Andrew, Jane Crocker_

 **Hi. I have trigger warnings this chapter. (I am Kankri Vantas, 69w 6ef9re me.) Also have some Derse. I love Derse. Purple forever 3**

 **Trigger warnings: genderfluid people, mentions of depression. I don't even know if those count as TWs but we're keeping it this way**

 **DISCLAIMER: Homestuck is Hussie's. Praise Hussie.**

Back-and-Forth II

It's late evening in Erselle Towers, and that means Strife time.

Or, it would be, if Dave wasn't already off the hook for the week.

He was running through one of the many interlacing hallways of the Towers, aiming for the northernmost doors that led to his destination. He couldn't believe Dirk had let him off Strife for a week, but his deal was accepted and Dave had places to be now.

Dave Elizabeth Strider, Prince of Derse, Mister Coolkid, whatever one feels like calling him. He was just a year and a half short of being of age to rule Derse, but he didn't really act like one's description of a Prince. Dave was ironic, laid back, and reckless, as well as impatient and rebellious. He was training to be a castle Knight despite being one of the people the knights protected, and he went against his brother's rules ninety percent of the time despite how scary he could be. His emotionlessness was amplified by the fact that he always wore black opaque shades and never took them off. He had hair that was closer to white than blonde, paleish skin, and a great poker face. Most of the time he shirked his princely duties and usually got away with wearing blue jeans and long-sleeved shirts with assorted pictures on the front (today it was an 8-bit record), which went along nicely with the red sneakers he refused to take off even at formal events.

Overall, Dave was the exact opposite of what you'd expect from a Prince.

The training grounds covered the northern side of the castle, separated from the east side, which was the front, by a tall wall that had a walkway accessible by the small spiral staircase in the corner of the grounds. The knights practically lived here, as there were barracks, training grounds, an armory, and a mess hall. Some actually did live there, and some had families elsewhere.

However, before Dave could get within ten feet of the door leading outside, someone grabbed his arm and pulled him into a room off the side of the hall. The Prince let out a very un-prince-like yelp at the sudden ambush.

The girl who had grabbed him smiled at Dave, black-and-purple Velvet Seer outfit with the trippy silk skirt and spaghetti straps swishing around her legs.

This was Rose Lalonde, Erselle's Seer and a usual at Erselle Towers. Well, Seer-in-Training, but she did most of her work herself. She enjoyed psychoanalysis and writing journals, and was very to-the-point and analytical. Some would describe her as apathetic, but her close friends knew she just had trouble expressing her feelings. She was of average height for her age, but she looked much older than sixteen because of the black lipstick, gem-studded headband in her pure white hair, eye makeup, and fancy dresses. She had dark skin and pale lavender eyes, and the same color of purple often decorated her dresses (never pants, always long-skirted dresses or long skirts). Today it was her Velvet dress, which had a purple skirt slit on the side, an empire waistband made of gold, and a black-and-purple top with gold straps. A skull was fastened onto the waistband.

Rose put a finger to Dave's lips before he could speak. She'd pulled him into a corridor that led downward, torches lining the stone walls.

"Sorry to pull you away from your next activity," Rose said quietly, "but I require your help before Jane gets back. I've got about an hour."

Dave sighed and pushed his shades up his nose. "What if I want to go train instead?"

Rose tut-tutted and started dragging him down the stairs by the wrist, and eventually the albino boy surrendered. He was dragged by the Lalonde to the bottom of the stairs and through a long, torch-lit tunnel until the two emerged into another room.

It was obviously a lab. Three desks sat parallel to each other ten paces away from each other, gray stones decorating the floor below the stainless steel tables. They covered almost the length of the room and were laid out with tube holders, glass tubes, beakers, burners, various colors of liquids, and even a Rube-Goldberg machine made of glass bottles, loopy tubes and a few burners that ran the length of the entire end table. A deep blue liquid dripped steadily from the end, being collected in a tube that was now nearly full.

The tube was grabbed by the person who was already in the room. Dave blinked; he hadn't seen them around for a long time.

"Hey Hylif, haven't seen you around in a while."

Hylif looked up and smiled, her short sand-colored hair bobbing a bit. Hylif was born outside of Derse, in the large stretch of uninhabited territory called the Wilderlands, but she was obviously a Dersite in looks. Most people native to Derse had slimmer or half-lidded eyes and strange eye colors; hers were the former and a shade between brown and white. She also had a darker tone of skin, but she had barely tanned, so it looked light a light tan. Hylif was, as only her close friends knew, genderfluid, which had caused her to have family troubles and her parents, who had raised her in the Wilderlands, left her in Erselle and continued their trek through the canyons. Today was a girl day, as shown by the thick-strap pale purple tank top and mid-thigh black skirt with dark purple leggings. Her hair was just brushing her neck, not even long enough to put in a ponytail, but her bangs fell over her eyes. Her personality was a bit of an enigma because she didn't talk about herself much, but she worked doing odd jobs around town, so most people knew her.

"Good morning, Prince Dave," Hylif said in a conversational tone. She placed the dark blue liquid into a slot on a tube holder behind her, next to several others of varying shades of blue. "Is Rose here to force you to help with our project again?"

Rose laughed. "Yes, he is. He wanted to go train, but I told him that he'd have to wait."

Dave's pocket buzzed. He pulled out his phone to look at the message. Messaging on Trollian and Pesterchum was a normal thing for Dersites (Dave didn't think it had spread to Prospit fully yet, though), though most people had a laptop because phones were super expensive and only high nobility got them.

\- - aerialOnslaught [AO] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] - -

AO: hey Dave I just gave John your message

TG: wow really thanks

TG: its only been like two days that was fast

AO: **it has

AO: at the very least put an apostrophe it is much appreciated

TG: not all of us are contraction nazis dude

AO: well anyways I just thought I would inform you that I did my work

AO: I should be back at Erselle in four days or so

TG: okay that's great

TG: hey keep me posted on rezi and jade

TG: they don't contact me anymore

TG: its kind of sad

AO: I will, your highness :/

TG: whoa there whats with the slanty face

AO: Rezi has net been pestering me lately either

AO: I will check on her while I am going to see Aradia

AO: how is that

TG: thanks

AO: no problem

AO: I think that is it for now I will go

TG: see you dude

\- - turntechGodhead [TG] ceased perstering aerialOnslaught [AO] - -

"Are you done, Dave?" Hylif asked as Dave returned his phone to his pocket.

The albino looked up at the two in front of him, saying "Yeah. What's the recipe for today's disaster?"

Hylif looked mildly offended and scrunched her eyebrows up a bit. "Disaster? I'd think more like, 'Magical Potion Project.'"

Dave leaned one arm on the table. "Magic? Okay, I'm listening."

However, before he could listen any more, his phone buzzed. Again. "One second."

\- - percipientBanneret [PB] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] - -

PB: Good even1ng, Dave. Are you busy, or do you have a moment to spare?

TG: no youre good

TG: as long as its fast

TG: I'm making magic potions right now

TG: important stuff

PB: Ah, 1 see, you must be down 1n the lab of Rose.

PB: How 1s she, 1f you don't m1nd me ask1ng?

TG: shes good as always

TG: and weird as always

PB: That's n1ce to know.

PB: On another note, 1 have someth1ng of m1ld 1mportance to tell you.

TG: lay it on me

PB: Do you recall the last t1me you saw me? When we were walking down the eastern hallways?

TG: yeah

TG: why

PB: 1 found someth1ng there yesterday 1 thought you'd want to check out.

PB: Beh1nd the tapestry of the Second Great War is a secret passage. 1 do not know where 1t leads, but 1 know 1t's there.

TG: whoa no way

TG: theres been a secret tunnel in my castle

TG: and i don't know about it

TG: what is this

PB: 1 apologize for not alerting you sooner than now.

PB: 1 have been preoccup1ed w1th other th1ngs.

PB: Do you th1nk, after you look around, you could tell me what you found? 1 could use the 1nformat1on.

TG: yeah sure

TG: ill get on it asap tomorrow

PB: Many thanks, Pr1nce Dave. 1 shall take my leave now.

PB: You seem to have some 'mag1c pot1ons' to get back to.

TG: oh yeah

TG: thanks rosie

PB: Of course, Dave.

\- - percipientBanneret [PB] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG] - -

\- -turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering percipientBanneret [PB] - -

"Are you done yet?" Hylif asked as Dave returned his phone, a look of impatience on her face. Mild impatience.

Rose was simply looking at him pointedly, and Dave said, "Hey, not my fault I'm popular. Where were we?"

"Making a surprise for Jane's birthday," Rose explained, dumping something fizzy and hot pink into the giant chain machine. "She's been telling me for a while about how much she wishes she could just make something move along faster."

Hylif nodded. "We're trying to create a potion that, when applied to something, will accelerate its growth rate temporarily. If it works, we'll call it an Enlargifying Spell."

"I still don't get why you call potions spells," Dave said, shrugging and taking a look at the test tubes with various colors of fizzy liquids in them. "But whatever. How are we doing this, and why do you need my help?"

Rose watched the yellow liquid fall up and down the tubes, collecting in a large spherical container and mixing with water, turning it green. "We need you to help us test them, seeing as you can touch these types of things without getting affected. Karkat would have been a better candidate, but he already told us he was busy today."

"More like yelled at us," Hylif corrected, laughing softly.

Dave didn't answer, but instead watched the now-green stuff go through the rest of the machine. Hylif changed a couple of dials and when it reached the end it came out in a small stream instead of drops, now being a bright sky blue. "I hope this turns out right the first time," the white-haired Seer said as she handed the test tube to Dave. "We had Rosie go over the plans, so this should be the only test run we need."

The Prince of Derse took the tube from her and poured a few drops into the palm of his hand. Normally, doing so with a unknown potion would cause the person to be affected. However, being pureblooded royalty, Dave could just touch magic potions without getting directly affected, because magic. The bright blue potion stung a bit on his skin, but besides that nothing happened. "Nothing out of the usual things that happen," the white-blond said, handing the potion back to Rose. "I'm pretty sure it's good. You didn't even need to test it, Rosie made the formula."

"True," Hylif said, nodding contemplatively. "Thank you for your help regardless, Prince."

"No problem," Dave replied, smiling ever so slightly. "Was that all you two needed?"

Rose put a cap on the tube and wrote down the name on the side of the tube. "I believe so. Is there anything you needed?"

Dave knew exactly what she was talking about. The Prince was a prime subject for the Seers' studies in psychoanalysis, and she took some level of sadistic pleasure in prodding him about his personal problems. She hadn't told anyone about anything they'd talked about, but even still, Dave had trouble just outright telling her his problems. Not that there were any to discuss now, seeing as she'd milked him dry of anything problematic, down to the fact that yesterday he'd walked around for a full five minutes without his sneaker laces tied. And she'd even taken it completely seriously... Rose was weird."I am just fine without another piece of my personal life in your journals, thanks."

"Of course, it was just an offer," Rose sighed, almost acting disappointed as she sighed. "Besides, who am I to ask anything of the _Prince_ , of all people. My apologies."

"Shoosh." Dave fixed his sunglasses and turned back to the tunnel that would lead back to the castle. "I hope that's all you needed, because I'm going to see if Karkles still has enough patience left to train with me."

"Have fun!" Hylif called as the albino left, followed by muffled laughter from both of the girls.

Dave shook his head and left the room, pulling out his phone to abuse Pesterchum even more.

\- - turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering gallowsCallibrator [GC] - -

TG: hey rezi

TG: youre probably not going to answer again

TG: maybe your computer died again or something

TG: i dont even know how you get service in the wilderlands

TG: did you make your own satellite

TG: or do you just leech it off of prospitians

TG: i dunno both opinions are pretty legit

TG: anyway i dont know why i keep messaging you

TG: im hoping youll answer at some point

TG: maybe youre just reading it and not replying

TG: which is fine i guess

TG: i just feel like youre dead or something

TG: i told other dave to check on you so hopefully i get an update soon

TG: is it weird to be worried about you

TG: because i kind of am

TG: oh wow that sounds stupid when i say it out loud

TG: or text it

TG: you get what i mean

TG: but yeah im kind of worried

TG: i dont wanna seem pushy but seriously would it hurt to text back like once

TG: if youre reading this that is

TG: okay if i keep going ill start saying weird stuff like last time

TG: sometimes i think thats why you dont reply

TG: because i start saying some really weird crap

TG: like

TG: where do you live

TG: because i would like to visit you or something

TG: or at least know a general location to like

TG: give you stuff

TG: and stuff

TG: and im starting to say weird stuff

TG: i think ill go now

TG: see you later rezi

TG: message me back ok

\- - turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering gallowsCallibrator [GC] - -

 **Noooooo I made it longer than last time**

 **Dang it. I said I wouldn't be biased toward Derse and I was. -_- Oh well. Hope you enjoyed.**

 **On another note, I had to make up tags for all the sprites and OCs and I can't imagine what it was like for Hussie to make, like, 36-plus tags. Holy crap. But here are all the ones used in this chapter: David - aerialOnslaught Rosie - percipientBanneret**

 **And another OTHER note, Hylif is only one of three OC-OCs. None of them are really too directly important to the plotline, so don't worry about them dominating the story. They won't.**

 **Also, who should I focus on next time? There's three areas (Prospit, Derse, Wilderlands), or you could choose based on characters. Derse dreamers are on Derse, Prospit dreamers on Prospit, with a few exceptions. Take your pick and I'll include them next time!**

 **Okay I think that's it. See you later.**

 **-Kegami**


	3. Chapter 3

Act One: Wilderlands

A1I1: Wild Ride

Featuring: David Andrew, Terezi Pyrope, Aradia Megido, _Vriska Serket, Sollux Captor_

 **Good morning. For me at least. It's like half past midnight right now. That's close enough to morning. ANYWAY, tired ramblings aside, I'm excited to present to you the WILDERLANDS! It's basically the stretch of land between Derse and Prospit :) People live there though so... Yeah.**

 **Also I had someone ask me about trolls so here's the definition or 'troll' for this AU: they're basically the same as the comic troll race (gray skin, horns, hemospectrum) except they have hair colors, and their hemospectrum is integrated into the nobility/peasantry for the most part. A lot of the trolls have roles that are higher or lower than their blood type, so it depends on if said troll respects the hemospectrum or not.**

 **And stuff.**

 **I'm also sorry David has somehow been in three chapters in a row. Have some Terezi as compensation.**

Wild Ride

 _Knock knock-knock knock knock._

David stood at the door of the treehouse for a moment more before a loud _knock-knock_ sounded from behind. The blue slab of wood slid inward a second later.

Terezi sniffed the air and, after a moment, said, "Hi Dave."

"Hey 'Rezi."

Terezi Pyrope was a semi-blind troll girl who lived in a giant blue-bark tree a ways from Prospit. She was part blind - had been since she was young - and covered her bright red eyes with equally red glasses, so it was hard to tell her eyes didn't have specifiable irises and pupils. Adding to the redness was her light red/orange hair, which was cut short for minimum need of care, and her dark red nails she kept perfectly painted somehow in the middle of nowhere. She was currently wearing her dragon cape, which was bright red, with a teal tee and black jeans underneath. Her favorite white scalemate plushie was under her arm, its left button eye coming loose and hanging by a string.

"I wasn't expecting you over," Terezi said, sounding happy although the tone didn't reach her mouth or eyes. "Wait one sec."

The door closed again, and David heard some rustling from inside before it opened again. "Come on, stop making my tree cold."

David let himself in, draping the orange scarf he was previously wearing on the top of the nearest chair. The Wilderlands were cold at this time of year, just before the snows would start falling in Derse. Leaves were falling off of the giant trees in the Humidity Forest, red and gold, a sight the blonde had seen recently on his way here. It was dusk now, the yellow and orange light of the sun bouncing off of the red and brown canyon and plains that surrounded Terezi's house.

Speaking of the house, it was in complete disarray. The female troll's scalemate plushies were on top of everything, and some were dirty and obviously hadn't been washed in forever. The table had a small pile of plates on it from previous meals Terezi hadn't washed yet, and the floor hadn't been swept in a long time. Books, three computers and an assortment of half-empty chalk boxes took up the majority of floor space. The walls were also covered in chalk, but that was always there.

"When did you last clean up?" David asked, stepping cautiously over a pile of broken chalk.

"I don't know," the redhead said, looking down sadly. "I haven't felt like doing much lately."

David knew that tone - he hadn't heard it in a while but he knew it. It meant that she was feeling really down - hopefully she wasn't having another one of her depression spells. The last time that happened... Well, no one talks about the last time Terezi was depressed. Dark times.

"What happened?" The blonde asked instead, picking up some colorful scalemates and setting them on the bed in the corner of the room.

Terezi sighed and looked down, hugging her white dragon plushie with both hands and rocking her torso back and forth.

Instead of prying, David pulled out his phone and sent her a message. The redhead's computer in the corner of the room next to her dinged, and the troll girl smiled lightly before going to sit at her desk.

\- - aerialOnslaught [AO] began pestering gallowsCallibrator [GC] - -

AO: do you want to talk about it this way

GC: Y34H, TH4NKS.

AO: no problem

AO: so what is wrong

GC: 1T'S NOT ANOTH3R D3PR3SS1ON, 1F YOU WOND3R3D.

AO: yet?

GC: Y3T

AO: do you think you could tell me what is making you so sad?

David sat down on the same chair his scarf was on. Might as well get comfortable.

AO: I will not interrupt feel free to rant

GC: TH4NKS.

GC: SO B4S1C4LLY

GC: OH GOG TH1S 1S H4RD3R TH4N 1 THOUGHT

GC: SOM3ON3 - 1 WON'T N4M3 N4M3S - H4S B33N SORT-OF BULLY1NG M3

GC: BUT NOT L1K3 FULL BULLY1NG BUT JUST 3NOUGH TO M4K3 M3 F33L B4D 4BOUT MYS3LF

GC: 4ND 1 DON'T KNOW HOW TO F1X 1T, SO 1'M JUST TRY1NG NOT TO HURT ANYON3 3LS3 R1GHT NOW

AO: wait

AO: so the reason why you will not contact anyone is because you are afraid of burdening or hurting them

GC: B4S1C4LLY

GC: 1 GU3SS

AO: well let me tell you something

AO: Dave has been asking after you for nearly a month

AO: and Lexie Karkat myself Roxy John and Sollux have all been worried

AO: I believe you are worrying us more than anything else

AO: it would be a good idea to just talk to everyone again

GC: R34LLY?

AO: really

There was a long pause before the next message. David looked over at the redheaded troll, who was facing her computer, and saw that her shoulders were shaking ever so slightly. He stood up quietly and walked over to her, looking over her shoulder as she typed.

GC: TH4NKS

"Anytime," the human said quietly, and Terezi smiled as she stood, turned around and hugged her friend. "You really are a lot more important to us than you think you are. We hate to see you so depressed."

"It happens," Terezi said, resting her cheek on his shoulder and staring at the blue walls. "Sorry."

"Do you mind telling me exactly who it was?" David asked, putting his chin on the top of her head. She took a deep breath that made her body shake, before reluctantly muttering into his jacket.

"Vriska. It's Vriska."

Instead of pushing her away to state his disbelief, David ignored the personal space invasion and held Terezi closer, a gesture which she was most likely grateful for. David didn't normally like anyone getting really close to him, but for a few people he could make exceptions. Besides, he and Terezi had a lot more in common than she thought. The blind girl just balled her hands into fists against the back of his shirt and let David's abnormally warm body temperature calm her.

After nearly three minutes of hugging in silence, Terezi sat back down in her black swivel chair and David soon after dragged his to sit next to her. "Your sort of sister Vriska?" The blonde asked. "Not like, some other chick named Vriska?"

She pushed her red glasses up her nose and laughed. "I only know one Vriska, Dave."

"Of course," David replied, smiling. He pushed his shades on top of his head and got a slightly better look around the large room while he spoke. "How about, next time I go to Prospit I tell her to lay off? I am currently going to Derse, but once I get back to Pristia I can talk to her again."

Terezi stood up and picked Pucefoot off the floor, setting him on her desk next to Pyralsprite. "Thank you. Now get outta my tree, I think you have a grape juice castle to get to."

"Grape j- oh, Derse, right," David said, catching what she meant. Since Terezi couldn't see clearly, she relied on her other senses and her synesthesia to 'see,' and Derse smelled like grapes juice to her. Most likely because of the general purple coloring. The taller kid looked out the window and noticed the sun was nearly halfway in its setting, and decided that now would be a good time to leave. "Speaking of which, I have one more stop to make before I camp out tonight, so I need to get going soon. May I leave now?"

"Oh yeah, go ahead," Terezi said, pulling on her light red hair and pushing him to the door with the unoccupied hand. "I'll see you after you knock some sense into my sister."

"See you around, Rezi," David said, giving her one last smile before she closed the door. He hoped she could sense it through her other senses - Terezi never got much love living out as far as she did. After dwelling on the thought for another moment, the yellow-blonde shook his head, grabbed the bright orange backpack the same color as his scarf (which he had remembered to grab on his way out) that contained his camp-out equipment for camping in the canyon, and descended the ladder along the trunk to the ground.

After glancing back at Terezi's window to make sure no one was watching, David grew wings from his back and flew into the air.

David knew he wasn't the only human who was half-person half-something else. He knew at least three other people who were part animal - he was going to see one now - but his was by far the weirdest one. Becoming a Hybrid was something that happened under specific circumstances to children between one month and three years, and was usually a malfunction that stayed for life unless one had it magically removed from them. David had been part-bird for as long as he could remember, but it was something that had been drilled into him as being a bad thing, so he hid it from everyone.

He supposed, as he flew close to the ground on dark orange wings, that the color of his wings had affected his favorite color, because orange was indeed his favorite shade. But that didn't matter right now - what did was getting to Aradia's house. He could already see the run-down hive-house on the horizon, and to his side he could see the sun setting a bit faster than he wanted. He sighed, gained some altitude, and used the winds in the higher sky to go faster.

Being a bird did have its advantages, especially when you need to make constant trips across wide stretches of monster-inhabited land. Speaking of which, said monsters were beginning to appear.

But for the sake of finishing this chapter in less words, suffice to say that they're the Lusi.

Eventually David reached Aradia's home, and with daylight to spare. He stopped a bit before the door, made his wings disappear, and walked forward, knocking on the door.

"David!" He heard from behind the door, the crystal-clear, high-pitched slightly foreign voice of the other Wilderlands dweller reaching his ears.

The door swung quickly inward and revealed Aradia Megido in the doorway, a slightly (more than slightly) deranged troll girl with red eyes. The shade of red varied from dark red to glowey red depending on her mood. She had dimples, bright red lipstick, bright red eyeshadow, and hair a mix of black and dark red that was only noticeable in bright light. She usually wore black shirts and ripped-at-the-bottom skirts (today's was bright red to go with her makeup) that let you see her bare feet. She had a bit of a bipolar personality, but she was an avid partier and deadly killer. Her hands and toes were webbed, and her hair had small frog-ear-things (seriously, wtf are they) instead of troll horns.

"Hi!" Aradia said, grinning, dimples showing against her cheeks. "I'm glad you came. I was getting booooored."

"I presume you were going to hold a corpse party?" David asked, making a pointed glance at the girl's hands, which had orange and olive-colored blood on them. He stepped inside and closed the door, taking a glance around the Hive.

It was all dark colors, except for the bright red around the pictures on the wall and the three-cushioned couch which had her laptop on it. Dark wood floors, a dark red and brown rug on the floor, brownish curtains, and black and dark red kitchen appliances. The kitchen, dining room and living room were all condensed into one room, and Aradia's bedroom and bathroom were down a small hallway. It was all perfectly neat and tidy, except the blood trails on the floor from when the troll had probably been dragging corpses around. Normally David would be worried about how often Aradia killed the Wilderlands monsters, but they were the only thing she killed. She didn't murder people, as it was strictly against the laws of trollciety.

"I was," the dark-haired girl said, a defeated tone in her voice, "but I sensed something else around and figured it was you. You approach this place at amazing speeds, you know? I decided I'd just get rid of all the corpses before you got here. Unless you want to see them?"

The blonde ignored the look in Aradia's eyes and shook his head, sitting on her couch next to her laptop and pulling out his phone. "No thank you. But I do need to relay your wellbeing to Sollux, because you blocked him and he's getting a little worried."

"Oh, yeah," the frog Demihuman said, drawing out the yeah. "I'll unblock him after you talk to him."

\- - aerialOnslaught [AO] began pestering twinArmageddons [TA] - -

TA: ii2 2he okay

AO: whoa

AO: yeah she is

AO: that was fast

TA: iim worriied what do you expect

TA: waiit by okay do you mean 2ame a2 alway2

TA: or liike actiing normal

AO: same as always

AO: she said she would unblock you as soon as we are finished talking

TA: thank gog

TA: oh and thank you two ii gue22

AO: you are welcome

TA: she unblocked me

AO: good

AO: i can see her on her computer here

TA: ii would contiinue thii2 conver2atiion but ii need two go

TA: famiily came for an unannounced vii2iit

AO: i see

AO: i will leave you alone then

TA: bye

AO: see you

\- - twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling aerialOnslaught [AO] - -

\- - aerialOnslaught [AO] ceased pestering twinArmageddons [TA] - -

"He's excited to see me," Aradia said, smiling ever so slightly, "but he says he has to go. I wonder what that's about."

"Family dropping by, or so he told me," David answered, shrugging. "Anyways, if there's nothing you need me to tell anyone, I need to get as far as I can before setting up camp tonight."

Aradia smiled wide, dimples showing, and nodded. "Nope! Go on your way. I have a corpse party to prepare for next time you're here!"

The blonde hid his shiver and nodded back. "Okay. I'll see you next time I cross the Wilderlands." He grabbed his bag next to the door and the brunette opened it for him. "Bye."

"Baieee!" Aradia said happily, closing the door. David sighed, shook his head, and took to the skies once again, leaving the frog girl behind in her Hive.

 **2600 words yay!**

 **Aradia's my zodiac troll, so I kind of modeled her after myself, minus the insane part, because I don't do corpse parties. Also I promise this is the last time you will see David for a while, because I have tons of other characters to introduce while I'm setting the stage for the war. Because duh there's a war. It's in the description.**

 **Sorry I was a little late on the update! It was supposed to be Saturday :/**

 **R/R, F/F! I try to reply to reviews, but sometimes I don't have time. I do my best though...**

 **See ya later**

 **-Kegami**


	4. Hiatus note

'Ello.

So.

Straight out with it: I'm putting this on hiatus.

I am NOT discontinuing. I love Homestuck still, and I love this story and where I plan to go, but my life is too busy right now to work on something this big. I'll be writing other stories in other fandoms, because they're not as complicated as this one. I PROMISE this story isn't going to be abandoned, just not updated for a long while.

Hope you understand and hope you will enjoy what I have up until I get back around to updating.

-Kegami


End file.
